The Necessaries
Biographie The Necessaries
The Necessaries
Formed in 1978 from the ranks of Downtown ensemble The Flying Hearts, The Necessaries were very much a band of their times. Their sound – a sleek, melodic take on new wave – was largely the design of founder and frontman Ed Tomney, and Russell entered the band on cello and keyboards at the suggestion of the group’s bassist, Ernie Brooks, formerly of the Modern Lovers. The group released two records on Sire, 1981’s Big Sky and 1982’s Event Horizon – the latter a rejigged version of their debut with a few Russell originals. But the confines of a touring rock band proved too limiting for the mercurial Russell, and by the release of the latter he’d jumped ship. One day in spring 1981, the band were driving to Washington DC when they hit traffic at the Holland Tunnel. Seemingly on a whim, Russell grabbed his cello, opened the door, and fled.
Without Arthur Russell, The Necessaries would have been a solid powerpop ensemble – a little Talking Heads, a little Cheap Trick, with subtle but nagging melodies and a likeable bounce to their rhythms. But spin Event Horizon and you can hear Russell actively nudging the group towards the margins. “Everyone wanted to make a commercial record, and Arthur was the curmudgeon, the anti-guy,” remembered producer Bob Blank in Tim Lawrence’s Russell biography Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell And The Downtown Music Scene. “He totally knew what to do musically, and then he would deliberately put people in an awkward position and make them claw their way out.”
